Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho law that outlaws abortion in almost all cases - PBS NewsHour

[ShazzieB]

2. "But the draconian Justice Samuel Alito, a diehard conservative, thought doctors have two equal patients..."

But the draconian Justice Samuel Alito, a diehard conservative, thought doctors have two equal patients when a pregnant woman shows up at an ER: the woman and her fetus.

What a maroon! How can there be "two equal patients," when one is already clearly doomed?

Forcing a doctor to delay treatment of the only patient who has any chance of survival until she is literally at death's door, in order to temporarily "preserve the life" of a fetus that has zero chance of survival, is ludicrously absurd.

I'm talking about situations like an ectopic pregnancy, where there is no chance of the pregnancy ptogressing normally. Or a ruptured amniotic sac prior to viability (which is basically a miscarriage that is already in progress).

These are just two of many possible examples where the eventual outcome is preordained, and allowing the pregnancy to continue until the woman is in danger of imminent death is an act of extreme cruelty to her while doing the fetus absolutely no favors.

I know some will say "the cruelty is the point," but I don't think this is just about cruelty. I believe it's at least equally due to the ignorance of lawmakers who think they are qualified to legislate medical decisions when they clearly are anything but.

Forced birthers just LOVE to rhapsodize about "saving babies." I can understand and accept that they think this is something they need to do, even though I hold very different views. Unfortunately, they assume that the way to do this is to force every pregnancy to continue until the woman's body spontaneously expels the contents of her uterus, resulting in either birth or a fetal death that in which human intervention plays no direct role. They literally do not understand (or in some cases refuse to believe) that there are situations where the woman's body cannot do this (in the case of an ectopic pregnancy) or does not automatically do it in time to avoid putting her health in serious peril.

I agree that most of these forced birthers don't care very much about cruelty to women, but I don't necessarily think it is their main goal. They simply see it an an unfortunare but acceptable byproduct of their quest to "save babies." I don't think most of them really believe that a fetus can be so obviously doomed that there is nothing to be gained by continuing a pregnancy, or that there is ever a time when intervening in a way that speeds up the already inevitable loss of a pregnancy is medically indicated, much less necessary, to avoid unnecessary risks to a woman's life and health.

Doctors, of course, know better. This is why medical decisions should be made by medically trained and qualified individuals on a case by case basis, instead of being dictated by rigid laws devised by people with NO medical training and no qualifications other than the belief that they are on a mission to "save babies." Legislators need to get OUT OF the fucking way and let doctors do the doctoring!

This is just one facet of what's wrong about abortion bans, of course, but I'm not going to get into the issues of bodily autonomy and a woman's right to make decisions about her own health right now. I'll save that rant for another day.